Jubilant FoodWorks Limited Q3 FY22 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Jubilant FoodWorks Limited (JUBLFOOD) Q3 FY22 Earnings Concall

Management Update:

• The company opened a record 75 new Dominos restaurants in 3Q in India and inaugurated the 1500th Dominos store in India.

• Internationally, in Sri Lanka, the company delivered its highest ever system sale in a quarter; Bangladesh also experienced a healthy growth. JUBLFOOD concluded the reverse book building process and increased its shareholding to 40.29% in DP Eurasia.

Q&A Highlights:

• Abneesh Roy from Edelweiss questioned about store additions in Hong’s and Ekdum! that’s at a four quarter low, with one store addition, while Dominos is at an all-time high. Pratik Pota CEO said that in Hong’s, the company is in a good place and the company will expand its network in the coming period. In Ekdum! that’s launched well after Hong’s, there is lot of work going on in refining the overall Ekdum! model. And Edkum! will be seen scaling up after Hong’s Kitchen.

• Abneesh Roy from Edelweiss asked about store closures in Dominos of about 15 stores, and if recovery of dine-in would impact the company. Pratik Pota CEO answered that the store closures in 3Q were very specific and targeted. Most of the stores closed were in tech parks or in travel and transport locations. Therefore, given the mix of stores currently, the company expects to be confident to participate in a full dine-in recovery when it happens.

• Percy Panthaki from IIFL asked about the pace of recovery Q2 compared to two year ago, the sales growth was in the range of 11% or so and Q3 versus two years ago 13%. Pratik Pota CEO replied that 3Q performance and the recovery needs to be seen in the context of operating constraints on the ground. The operational hours were 5% lower than previous periods. Also, dine-in capacity restriction continued during 3Q. And in 2H of Dec. there were far more restriction than enforced.

• Jaykumar Doshi from Kotak asked that revenues versus December ’19 was up 13%, employee cost was down 3% and other expenses up 27% and if there is any change in the mix in terms of handling larger volumes of delivery through third-party logistics providers. Ashish Goenka CFO replied that the company has been variabalizing its cost for reducing employee cost. However, even normalizing for that there has been reduction in employee cost sequentially and YoY, as the company have been driving productivity and using wastages across cost line, and benefits of operating leverage.

• Jaykumar Doshi from Kotak enquired what percentage of volumes are handled by third-party and the number pre-pandemic. Ashish Goenka CFO clarified that the company has its own delivery fleet, and the meaning of variablization of man power means that instead of fixed service contracts, now there are variable contract with the same employee, but it’s not the use of third-party delivery. JUBLFOOD added that this gets captured in other expenses.

• Arnab Mitra of Credit Suisse asked about the inflation on food and fuel, that in the pricing that’s taken, does it kind of mostly cover for the incremental pressure seen on the cost side? Pratik Pota CEO said it did make a pricing intervention towards later half of December and it has gone in well. The company is continuing to see headwinds on inflation in the current quarter also. Right now, the pricing intervention taken towards the end of December should cover for a large part of the inflationary headwind to be faced in 4Q.

• Avi Mehta from Macquarie Capital asked that as stated last quarter that while the businesses reopen, is there an increase in promotional activity. Pratik Pota CEO said that as inflation has hardened and there being real cost pressures across the category, the company is seeing the promotional intensity across the industry become a little bit more moderated. And expects that to continue also in 4Q.

• Vishal Punmiya from Nirmal Bang asked that in terms of 16 net additions in 3Q, if the company is revising the store opening target from 150, 175 for FY’22. Pratik Pota CEO replied that the company has already opened 150 stores. Therefore, it will be fair to say that the number would be higher than 150 to 175, and to be closer to 200 stores for FY’22.